The present invention relates to an identification (I.D.) card hopper that used with a card printer and to provide cards that are to be printed and which are fed one at a time into the printer. The card hopper can be lifted to a position wherein the card feed is accessible so a single card can be fed under the hopper and into the printer along the card feed path. This permits feeding a selected special size or special shape card without removing all of the cards in the stack in the hopper, and after the exception feed the hopper can be lowered to resume the normal feed from the stack of cards in the card hopper.
Card printers for printing on I.D. cards and similar substrates are widely used and normally a card hopper is provided which holds a stack of cards. Cards are fed from the stack one at a time. With present card hoppers, if a particular different card is to be fed, for a customized print or for other purposes, it has been necessary to remove the entire stack of cards from the hopper, make adjustments for the card size or shape, and then have that card fed from the normal position of the card hopper. Other apparatus requires a special insert apparatus that has to be mounted adjacent a hopper to permit inserting an exception card into a card hopper without removing all the cards.
It has been found that customized or special cards are desired many times, and that the process of removing the stack and replacing it with a card to be printed, is time consuming, and disrupts the flow of printing of the cards on the stack. Unless the cards are properly replaced, errors in printing can occur.
The present invention provides for permitting the feeding of a single card that is different from those in the stack, easily, quickly and reliably.
The present invention relates to a card feeder for a printer, which will permit feeding an individual card different from those held in a stack in a card hopper.
The cards from a stack in a hopper are normally fed one at a time along a card feed path using a card drive, generally comprising a powered roller. The present invention includes a card hopper that can be moved with the card stack left in place so that there is a space provided between the card stack in the hopper and the card drive. An individual card can be hand fed through the space to the card drive and then to the printer. An input signal can be provided to move the card hopper to provide the space for feeding a card by hand. An individual card is then inserted into the feed path, and a sensor provides a signal so the card drive, as shown, a feed roller, will be started. The individual manually fed card will be gripped and transferred into the printer. The printing program for that individual card can be provided by a manual input to a controller.
As shown, the hopper is lifted and lowered under a central control driving a lift cam. Additionally, in the form shown, a dual hopper is utilized and the entire hopper assembly lifted to provide a card feed space underneath the hopper assembly.
The feeding of the card can be suitably sensed, so that the card is power fed in a normal manner and handled in the printer in a normal way automatically, once the card feed has been initiated.
The ability to feed individual cards apart from the stack in the hopper permits more flexibility in printing, and the ability to easily introduce a custom card or a special purpose card at any time during the printing process.